


Bedsheets and Bedmates

by celtic7irish



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Captured by HYDRA, Electrocution, Flirting, Gen, Hydra's laying a trap, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Steve Rogers Is a Good Bro, Temporary Captivity, They can hug each other, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, waking up in bed together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2019-12-16
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:08:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21823420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celtic7irish/pseuds/celtic7irish
Summary: The first thing Bucky noticed when he opened his eyes was that he didn’t recognize the ceiling above him.  A moment after that, he realized he wasn’t alone.Or: That time when a simple in-and-out mission went horribly wrong and Tony and Bucky end up captured as part of a nefarious trap for Captain America (because villains are stupid and forget Captain America has a Hulk)
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Tony Stark
Comments: 25
Kudos: 119
Collections: 2019 WinterIron_Holiday_Exchange





	Bedsheets and Bedmates

**Author's Note:**

  * For [badgerling](https://archiveofourown.org/users/badgerling/gifts).



> Based (somewhat) off of these two fun prompts!
> 
> 3\. Bucky and Tony wake up in bed together. Naked. With no memory of how they got there, what happened to their clothes, or who might be responsible. (Any)  
> 5\. A mission goes wrong, and Bucky and Tony end up trapped, just the two of them, waiting to be rescued. (Any)
> 
> I hope you enjoy this fun little fic! At least, I had fun!

The first thing Bucky noticed when he opened his eyes was that he didn’t recognize the ceiling above him. A moment after that, he realized he wasn’t alone.

“Good morning, Sunshine!” Tony greeted, but there was a slight edge to his tone that belied his cheerful words. “Or maybe it’s night. I don’t actually know, but I was starting to wonder if you were ever gonna wake up.”

Bucky blinked, puzzled. “Why wouldn’t I wake up?” he mumbled, grimacing at the hoarseness of his voice. He tried to roll over, and that was when he discovered problems three and four.

Three, he was missing an arm. His left one, to be precise. And four, his other arm - and both his ankles - were in chains. The fact that he was naked except for the thin sheet covering his modesty hardly made an impression. He turned his head - carefully, his head was killing him - and looked over at Tony, who was eyeing him warily, but not like he was afraid. That was good, then. It meant that he probably wasn’t responsible for that shiner on the genius’ face, or their current predicament.

He worked his jaw for a moment, breathing through the panic that wanted to surface. He didn’t have time for that right now. “What happened?” he asked, once he was fairly certain he wouldn’t start screaming when he opened his mouth.

Tony grimaced, pushing himself into an upright position. "I was hoping you'd remember, actually," he admitted. He shifted again, and Bucky heard the slither of metal against cotton.

"Ankles?" He asked wryly.

Tony scowled down at the foot of the bed. "Just one ankle," he corrected with a huff. "I think I'm offended."

Bucky chuckled. Trust Tony Stark to be offended at not being rendered completely immobile. "I'm sure you'll show them the error of their ways, doll," he offered.

Tony gave him a sour look, not the least bit mollified. Bucky raised an eyebrow. "You've still got both your arms," he offered instead. Tony's expression immediately turned chagrined.

"Are you okay?" he asked, concerned. His hands reached out and hovered over the stump where Bucky’s arm had been attached as he looked over it with a critical eye. “It looks like whoever removed it knew what they were doing, at least.” He didn’t say whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, and Bucky grimaced.

“Yeah, well, they can have it, whoever ‘they’ are,” he grumbled. “Good riddance. But seriously, no ideas?” he asked. 

Tony shook his head. “Nope,” he said. “Mission complete, great job, go us, then nothing.”

Bucky nodded. That was pretty much all he could remember, too. The two of them had been on a milk run of a mission. Tony was the flashy one, bulldozing his way into a company that was rumored to be a front for Hydra, his name and his money opening doors that not even Hydra was stupid enough to close to him. Of course, Tony’s gregariousness was little more than a smoke screen to allow for infiltration by the Winter Soldier, who would verify whether or not Hydra - or some other shady organization - was involved, gather what information he could, and then walk away. The goal wasn’t to hurt innocent people who were just trying to make a living, or who might not realize just who they were working for. So infiltration, intel, retreat. Planning would come later.

Tony had done his bit and left, though he wouldn’t have retreated far, in case Bucky needed a quick pick-up. The soldier had gotten what he’d come for and had just slipped out a back door under cover of night, planning to call Tony once he was out of immediate range. But he didn’t remember anything after that. He assumed he’d been dropped by a dart or something, because he was pretty sure he would’ve remembered somebody attacking him head on. And anybody who could get the jump on them like that was somebody worth paying attention to. Somebody dangerous.

“Any ideas for gettin’ us outta here?” Bucky asked, yanking hard against the chain on his right wrist.

“Working on it,” Tony said, just before he shimmied under the covers. Bucky tried really hard not to think about the kinds of things they could be doing under the sheets. He’d kept his attraction to Tony limited to sly looks and a bit of harmless flirting. He was only just starting to figure out who he was now. There was no need to complicate things by trying to push for a relationship with the man whose parents he’d killed, for crying out loud.

“Seriously?” Tony’s complaint was muffled by the covers as he did…whatever it was he was doing. Bucky assumed he was checking out the ankle cuffs. “What did they do? Weld these shut?”

“I s’pose it’s possible,” Bucky allowed. “No hinges?”

“Eh,” Tony said. “Not hinges I can see. They had to get them on us somehow. And so help me, if you say magic, I’ll…well, I don’t know what I’ll do. But I’ll think of something, I’m sure.”

Bucky grinned as Tony resurfaced, the chain on his leg clinking softly. “I’m sure I’ll be suitably concerned,” he conceded.

“You should be,” Tony informed him, his hands careful as he checked the cuff around Bucky’s wrist. “I can’t believe they stripped us down,” he muttered.

Bucky snorted. “It was a smart move,” he admitted. It was really the only way to be certain that they didn’t have any concealed weaponry on them.

Tony’s hands fell away. Tugging at the sheets, Tony felt along them before gripping tight and tearing a strip off. Bucky tried not to blush as the sheets were pulled away. It wasn’t like he could do anything about it anyhow. Instead, he turned his focus back to their surroundings. The last thing they needed was to be caught off guard when they were already about as vulnerable as it was possible to be. “I’d ask if you had any enemies, but that’d be kinda pointless,” Bucky murmured.

Tony snorted. “Tell me about it,” he muttered, using hands and teeth to tear off another strip of the sheet. “Hydra, AIM, Doom, Wrecking Crew, _Justin Hammer_ ,” he listed off. “And that’s just this month.”

Bucky allowed himself to feel a trickle of amusement, but remained alert. “Think one of ‘em is smart enough to catch us off-guard like that?” he asked.

“Honestly?” Tony asked. “No.”

Bucky was inclined to agree. Hydra was, perhaps. But if it had been Hydra, Bucky would not be lying in a bed somewhere, chained and naked next to an equally naked Tony. This seemed almost more like somebody playing a prank on them, but Bucky was pretty sure that the rest of the Avengers - except for Steve, but that punk would never _chain Bucky down_ \- were still scared enough of him to know better.

Another rip, and Bucky’s curiosity finally got the better of him. “What are you doing?” he asked.

Tony smiled grimly. “Trying not to lose a leg,” he answered bluntly. It took Bucky a moment to figure out what the other man was planning, and he stilled when it sunk in. 

“No,” he said, much more calmly than he felt.

“One of us needs to be free,” Tony pointed out, his tone almost reasonable. “And I’ve only got one limb chained.”

Before Bucky could reply, a shock ran through him, a sharp jolt emanating from the points of contact at his wrist and ankles. It didn’t hurt, exactly, but the soldier understood it for the warning it was. “Wait,” he gasped, and Tony paused, his head cocked.

“Bucky?” he asked, giving him a concerned frown. “What is it?” Bucky realized that his outward reaction hadn’t been significant or long enough to worry Tony, and he made a quick decision. He might regret it, but he couldn’t _not_ let Tony try.

“Nothin’,” he said, keeping his voice steady. “I jus’ think it would be better if we tried to get me out first. I heal faster.” There, that wasn’t the least bit suspicious, right?

“Sorry, Buckaroo,” Tony said, “but that’d take too much time.” Bucky nodded, resigned, and Tony took that for permission. He reached for his ankle cuff again, and another shock ran through Bucky. But this time, it didn’t stop, and Bucky gritted his teeth, his muscles locking up and his eyes closing. He couldn’t focus on outside threats like this, but if he could keep the screams behind locked teeth, perhaps Tony wouldn’t notice anything was wrong.

Unfortunately, whoever was watching them didn’t care that Bucky was trying to _shut up and let Tony work_ , and the electric shock kept increasing, until Bucky felt like he was constantly being tazed. His back arched up off the bed, and his mouth opened up on a hoarse scream as he thrashed. The pain seemed to go on and on and on before it finally stopped, just as abruptly as it had started, and Bucky collapsed back onto the bed with a choked sob, trying to pull air into lungs that were refusing to cooperate. Hydra had used a shock stick on him before, but this was so much worse.

It was long moments of trying to breathe past the residual pain before Bucky realized that Tony was peering down at him worriedly, his mouth moving frantically. “Oh god, are you okay?” Tony asked, looking like he was about to be sick. Bucky could sympathize.

“Electricity,” he managed to say, muscles still twitching with the aftershocks.

Tony gave a wet laugh, and Bucky realized that his eyes were damp. “Yeah, the screaming and the smell of burning flesh kinda gave that away,” he said, which was when Bucky realized that his wrist and ankles were burned and raw where they were cuffed to the bed. He hadn’t noticed before because the pain was _less_ , but now he couldn’t _not_ notice.

Tony looked like he didn’t know whether to yell or cry. “The cuffs are too tight to get them wrapped without hurting you further,” he told Bucky, who nodded.

“I’ll heal,” he said. Eventually. He didn’t say that out loud, but he didn’t have to.

Tony scowled, then lifted a hand and very, very deliberately stuck a finger in the air. Bucky snorted a laugh; trust Tony Stark to tell an unknown enemy to go fuck themselves.

There was the low crackle of an intercom - Bucky pretended not to notice Tony rolling his eyes - and then a voice. Male, Bucky noted, but not a voice he recognized. “And here I thought you’d appreciate all the effort we went to, Mr. Stark,” the voice said.

Tony didn’t bother to hide it when he rolled his eyes again. “Oh, yes, I always appreciate being kidnapped and stripped,” he sniped back.

A low chuckle. “Kidnapped and stripped naked next to your little crush, yes?” the voice taunted.

Bucky’s eyes narrowed. “What’re you, stupid?” he demanded, glancing at Tony for a sense of camaraderie. He wasn’t expecting the dull flush on Tony’s cheeks, but that was something to contemplate for another time, preferably when they weren’t in any more danger than usual.

“Look,” Tony started, “how about you tell us what you want, so we can tell you where you can shove it?”

Rather than a verbal response, another charge went through Bucky’s restraints. It didn’t last long, but it was enough, and Tony’s expression turned stricken, then furious. His jaw tightened. “What do you want?” he demanded again.

“Simple,” the man spoke up. “We want you - both of you - to stay right where you are. Nothing more. Nothing less.”

Tony’s eyes narrowed, and Bucky’s hand clenched reflexively into a fist. If whoever had taken them didn’t want _them_ , then that led him to believe that they were the bait for someone else. Who? Steve? Captain America would be the logical choice, he supposed. Leader of the Avengers, two of his team missing. But surely Steve wouldn’t come alone. Right?

“No,” Tony said abruptly. “You know what? I’m not doing this.” With that, he reached down and dragged the remainder of the sheet up over Bucky and himself, curling up close to Bucky’s side. “Wake me up when the stupidity ends,” he muttered, closing his eyes. Bucky stared in disbelief.

There was a long moment of silence over the intercom, but whoever was on the other side must’ve just thrown their hands up in resignation. “Try anything, and I won’t stop next time,” he threatened. Bucky nodded carefully, his eyes lowered as he tried to appear cowed and submissive. It wasn’t as hard as it might’ve been once; time under Hydra’s brainwashing and control would do that to a person. Part of him still railed against the unfairness of it, but right now, it sure came in handy.

When nothing more was forthcoming, Bucky glanced down. “What’re you doin’?” he asked. He couldn’t see any movement under the sheets, but he could feel the muscles in Tony’s arm shifting as he did _something_. 

Tony peered up at him from under the covers, and Bucky raised an expectant eyebrow. “I’m not doing anything,” Tony lied glibly.

“Uh huh,” Bucky drawled. “You plannin’ to just wait for rescue?”

“Well, I never said that,” Tony hedged. “But I can’t have them electrocuting you every time I move, either.” There was something shielded in his expression that made Bucky wonder.

“Yeah, that wasn’t much fun,” Bucky admitted. His wrists still ached, the metal rubbing against the tender skin, but at least his muscles had stopped jumping under his skin from the aftershocks. 

“You figure they’re after Cap?” Tony wondered idly.

“Well, I don’t think they’re after Hulk,” Bucky answered. Tony grinned up at him, and Bucky smiled back.

“That would be something to see, though,” Tony chuckled. He finally squirmed his way up out of the covers, then stilled. No shock was forthcoming, and Bucky relaxed after a moment. Whatever Tony had been doing hadn’t triggered any alarms. 

“How long do you figure rescue will take?” Bucky wondered.

Tony shrugged. “I don’t know, but I really don’t fancy being rescued in my all-together,” Tony said, flushing. 

Bucky grinned. “Don’t worry,” he murmured, keeping his voice pitched low. “He won’t say nothin’. Or I’ll just have to bring up some embarrassin’ stories to share.”

Tony smirked. “You can bring those up any time, Buckaroo,” he said, pressing firmly up against Bucky’s side so they were touching from hip to ankle. Bucky was still flat on his back, with Tony sitting up, and it was odd, and a little uncomfortable to be so vulnerable in front of the other man. But if Tony wasn’t going to make a big deal of it, then neither was he.

Tony’s fingers were tapping nervously on his chest, against the hard case of the reactor, and Bucky started to wonder what, exactly, Tony had been up to under the covers.

“You need to relax,” he told the genius, his tone fond, but his eyes sharp as he stared Tony down. It didn’t take Tony long to figure out what he was trying to do, and Tony flopped down dramatically, his head dropping onto Bucky’s chest, his right arm flung over him, coming to rest on Bucky’s ribs, just below the stump of his arm.

“This sucks,” Tony informed him. Bucky chuckled, his knee knocking lightly against Tony.

“I dunno about that,” he replied. “We could use a vacation, yeah?” He paused, making sure Tony was paying attention. “A little one-on-one?” He batted his eyes exaggeratedly. Let their watchers think they had given up. Or let them be suspicious.

Tony lifted his head and turned a gimlet stare on Bucky, who just smirked. Tony smirked back. “What? I don’t give you enough attention at home?” he teased back. Bucky shivered. Tony was only referring to their sessions in the lab, when Tony was working on the maintenance on his arm, or when Bucky was playing with the bots.

Before Bucky could reply, there was the soft click of a door. Bucky tensed, and saw Tony do the same. The man who stepped into the room wasn’t anybody that Bucky recognized, but the pin on his lapel made his allegiance obvious. A new recruit, perhaps. Or somebody trying to move up in the ranks by capturing and defeating the Avengers. Bucky tensed.

“I don’t know what you’re up to, but it’s obvious that you’re up to something,” he said, snapping his fingers. Four beefed up security guards entered and surrounded the bed. Bucky tensed, braced for a fight that he couldn’t finish. Tony’s spine was tense, but his shoulders were relaxed as he ignored the guards, looking instead at their boss. He very pointedly flipped the sheet off of his leg to show his chained ankle.

“Hate to say it, pal, but I’m kind of grounded here,” he said. Bucky stilled, keeping his eyes on their guards and trusting Tony to take care of the guy in the doorway. Teamwork at its best.

The man held up a small device, and Bucky tensed just before a jolt went through him, ending just as quickly. But he’d made his point. Tony raised his hands above his head and held still while one of the guards reached for his ankle. Rather than remove the cuff, he reached under the bed. A moment later, there was a clink, and Tony drew his ankle back, the cuff and chain still attached. “Get up,” the guard ordered.

Tony slipped off the bed and stood, completely unselfconscious in his skin. Bucky would call him shameless, but that wasn’t it, really. Tony was just comfortable with himself. And when he wasn’t, he could fake it, better than anybody Bucky had ever seen. It never failed to impress him, and had probably been what had gotten the both of them through those first few tense months when Steve had brought Bucky in, still more Soldier than person. But after the battle over the Potomac, his arm had needed maintenance, and he hadn’t exactly had any better options.

During those sessions, Tony filled in the silence for both of them, talking about what he was doing, and what the end result was, checking in to see if he was in any pain or if something wasn’t working smoothly. And when the Winter Soldier had shown curiosity towards the helper bots, Tony had talked about them. And about Jarvis. And eventually about the rest of the Avengers, though Bucky knew that he was only skimming the surface, telling him harmless little anecdotes that wouldn’t compromise the team. It was smart of him. But it was also more than anybody else had done, except Steve. And Steve only told him stories about their shared past, a past that the Soldier couldn’t remember.

And gradually, as the human side emerged once more from the Soldier, finding a sort of balance between the two, Bucky had started participating in the maintenance sessions, offering stories and observations of his own. And he’d realized something; nothing that Tony said really meant anything. It was always what he did.

And now, he was standing and sauntering towards the door. But there was something cool and metallic sitting on Bucky’s chest, under the covers, put there while the guards had been watching the rest of Tony. They’d expected him to try something after they’d let him go. Bucky very carefully didn’t look down, remaining tense and alert and glaring at their captor as he smirked at Tony.

The man looked over at him, and his look turned arrogant. “No need to worry, _Soldat_ ,” he dismissed, and Bucky growled low in his throat. “We don’t plan to hurt him. Yet, at least,” he added. Bucky jerked against his restraints, as they’d no doubt expected him to do. The punch to his face didn’t come as much of a surprise, and Bucky turned and spat blood onto the sheets next to him, glaring up at the guard that had hit him.

“I’ll remember that,” he vowed.

The guard grinned. “Lookin’ forward to it,” he said. Bucky didn’t doubt it.

The moment the door closed behind the six men, Bucky moved. His limbs were still bound, but that didn’t matter. On his chest was a tiny round disc that Bucky recognized instantly. He chuckled; trust Tony to carry miniature EMPs _in his arc reactor_. He’d probably created a slot in the outer rim of the casing for them. Both the arc reactor and Bucky’s arm were shielded against EMP blasts, but Hydra’s cuffs? Bucky doubted it.

Executing a sinuous roll that would have made Tony salivate, Bucky flipped the EMP device up to his mouth, aware that he had no time to waste. Now that they had Tony, it was only a matter of time before they were back to watching him from whatever control room they thought would keep them safe.

Once the device was in his mouth, Bucky used his tongue to turn it around until he could clamp down - carefully - on the pressure plate, setting off the EMP. There was no tremor, no way to tell that it had worked, but Bucky _knew_. If Tony had made it, then it worked. That was like knowing that grass was green and the sun was hot. It was fact.

He still didn’t have much leverage to work with, but he was strong, and he pulled himself as tight as he could, as if he would curl up on the bed, stretching the chains to their maximum length. Bracing himself, Bucky took a deep breath and _yanked_ , feeling the skin on his wrist and the meat of his palm tear as he forced his hand through the cuff. It hurt, but it wasn’t permanent, and Bucky had to be out before the guards came back.

When his hand finally slipped free after what felt like forever, but had probably only been a couple of minutes, Bucky took a quick moment to just breathe through the way his wrist and hand throbbed, and then sat up, flipping over onto his stomach and sliding off the bottom edge of the bed, so that he was on the floor. Twisting around and rolling onto his back, Bucky reached under the bed and found where the chains were connected, making short work of them and freeing himself, standing up with the cuffs still on his ankles, trailed by the attached chains. They would be a liability in a fight, but Bucky didn’t have much choice. Tony was probably going to have to cut them off, at this point.

Bucky was almost to the door when it burst open, and he picked up speed, barreling into the man who was charging into the room. The two men went down in a tangle of limbs, and Bucky twisted, coming out on top and pulling back his fist, then freezing, staring down at surprised blue eyes.

“Bucky?!” Steve demanded, his question almost drowned out by the roar of the Hulk. The building shook under them, and Bucky rolled off of Steve and onto his feet, breathing heavily and glaring at his best friend.

“You’re a bit late to the party,” he bit out. “Coulda saved me a busted arm.”

“Seems like you were doing just fine on your own,” Steve replied, eyes steady on his. Bucky realized he was blushing, and he smirked.

“Like what you see?” he drawled.

Steve snorted, even as he moved to the bed and yanked off what was left of the sheet, tossing it at Bucky without actually looking at him. Bucky considered it for a moment, then shrugged and wrapped it around himself like a toga. It covered the stump of his arm, and if something came their way that Steve couldn’t handle, the extra half-second it would take him to drop the sheet wouldn’t make much of a difference.

“Pretty sure what I see is reserved for a certain genius,” Steve snarked back, and this time it was Bucky who blushed. He’d obviously not been as subtle as he’d thought about his attraction to a certain brunette. Steve grinned at him, a sharp smile that reminded Bucky of when they were younger. “You oughta tell him,” he said. “After you’re out of immediate peril, of course.” He struck a chivalrous pose, looking utterly ridiculous. “Just for today, I shall be your Prince Charming,” he offered.

Bucky’s reply was drowned out by the sounds of multiple explosions. The whole floor shook under them, and the two soldiers looked at each other. “Window,” Steve said. Bucky didn’t argue, and the two men took off, out of the room and down the hall, where there was indeed a window. With a Quinjet right outside. With a fierce grin, Bucky followed Steve through the glass, shards raining down on him as he leapt, his feet catching the edge of the open bay door as he tumbled inside. And then promptly tripped over his sheet, much to the delight of a certain non-super soldier.

“Looking good there, Barnes,” Sam mocked.

“I pull this off way better than you ever could,” Bucky snapped back, his eyes focused on the building in front of them. Another explosion forced the Quinjet to back away, and then the entire outer wall just sort of...exploded. Bucky really hoped there wasn’t anybody on the ground to get hurt as the Hulk leapt, Tony’s face pressed against a broad green chest as the Hulk grabbed onto the Quinjet’s left wing, tipping the whole thing dangerously before he rolled inside, coming to rest on his back, Tony on top of him.

Tony sat up, his own waist wrapped in what looked like window curtains, his eyes wide and his hair a poofed up mess. He had streaks of soot on his face, and when he shook his head, small bits of brick dropped to the floor. “Let’s never do that again,” he suggested weakly. Then he looked up, meeting Bucky’s eyes. He cocked his head as he eyed Bucky up and down, taking his time. Bucky felt his face heat up at the scrutiny. “Well, the waking up together in bed part, that we can do again,” he suggested with a slow smirk.

“Aw, ears, no!” Clint whined from up front, steering the Quinjet away from the toppled Hydra lair.

Bucky just laughed, reaching down and pulling Tony up against him.

“Anytime, doll. Anytime.”


End file.
